Most kids toys and activities come in multi-colours so the chances are you already have all sorts of resources for talking about colours. Mine liked things such as:
- wax crayons, take them all out the pot, name them as they are put back in the pot, repeat, repeat, repeat
- felt tip pens, take the lid off, say the colour, put the lid back on, put it in the pot, repeat, repeat, repeat...take all the lids off match the right lid to the right pen, repeat, repeat, repeat (could I get him to draw with the pens - no, these were the activities he liked)
- magnetic letters, sorting into colours on the fridge or on a baking tray
- foam letters, sorting into colours in the bath
- wooden building blocks to name and stack in colour sets (ours were wooden colour but had coloured letters on)
- toy cars, lining up in colour groups
- musical instruments, naming the colours
- ribbons, naming colours
- coloured foam sticker shapes, either just dumping them all out the pot then colour matching in groups or naming each colour as it's dropped back in the pot
- duplo bricks or mega blocks, building in colour groups, copying colour patterns (very simple ones at this age, red blue red blue for instance)
- range of different objects all in a heap to group together in colours: plastic drinking cups, snack bowls, straws, hoops, pens, ribbons, gloves, scarves, socks, fruit and veg...anything safe from around the house and let him put them in groups, or just name the colours.
It's all pretty basic and repetitive stuff, if your child is interested in learning colours then basically anything like this will captivate him.
Out and about trips (we used to walk to the local shop just for an activity to do):
- find the bubble bath or fabric softener aisle and let him point to each different colour bottle/liquid (also good for beginning to teach that in a shop some things may be touched and some not, I didn't mind mine taking some plastic bubble bath bottles off the shelf and putting them back so long as it wasn't a busy shop and we left everything neatly).
- in the park pointing out all the different colours of flowers
- DIY store, the paint aisle, loads to explore there and usually you can pick up a colour chart or free magazine to take home, mine liked to see all the different variations of "yellow" for instance, colour sample strips can also be left whole or cut up and used for other colour games or just looking through.
Bean bags:
- place all the bags in a basket in one room, go and sit in another room, furthest from teh basket, ask him to go fetch the red bean bag. you stay where you are and he toddles off (or crawls) to the bags, selects and brings back. If you have a little shopping basket or toy shopping trolley or a kiddie size safe fabric bag you can give him that to put the bean bag in. Kids love to fetch and carry
- balance bean bag on head (sitting, standing or walking)
- balance bean bag on other parts of body - on hand, on elbow, on foot...
- throw to one another
- hide bean bags under upturned bowls, send him to find one at a time and bring them back (can incorporate colours too, he searches under each bowl to find the right one to bring back. As memory improves you will see he stops random searches and remembers where he saw the red when trying to find the blue so when you ask for red he goes directly there for instance), mark out a home/base line or basket where he is to bring the found bags to.
- shaking out rhythms to music or nursery rhymes
- counting to 6 and backwards, placing in groups of 2 or 3.
- use just one to play hide and seek. You tell him to hide his eyes or leave the room whilst you hide it (in open view), tell him to look for it and give him clues "closer" "oh not not that way" and help him find it by pointing if needed. When he is very successful at finding in open view make a little hard by placing it half out of view or in an open toy basket where it's in view but only if you are looking into the basket etc. Also you let him hide it for you to find (kids usually show you where it's hidden)
- make pins/skittles with recycled plastic bottles to throw bags at (but this takes good aim, leave it for now if not successful as it can be frustrating)
